


Those Who Are Awake

by LeBibish



Series: The Lost Tales [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Creation, Dragons, Gen, Mythology - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-31
Updated: 2012-07-31
Packaged: 2017-11-11 03:23:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/473964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeBibish/pseuds/LeBibish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Long, long ago, the world was covered with great animals, larger and more powerful than can be imagined. And one animal, one strange animal, developed something unusual.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those Who Are Awake

Long, long ago, the world was covered with great animals, larger and more powerful than can be imagined. They did not rule the earth, for animals have little concept of "rule," but it was theirs nonetheless.  Among the immense beasts were many smaller ones as well; there were animals that ate plants and animals that ate meat; animals that flew and animals that crawled; animals that ran and animals that swam. And one animal, one strange animal, developed something unusual.

It could change itself. This animal was a meat eater; and the more it ate, the more it could change. It ate enough creatures that flew, and it learned how to make itself wings. It ate enough creatures that swam, and it learned how to make itself gills. And when the great terror fell from the sky and turned the world dark and cold, the animal made itself very small and survived.

As happens with animals that survive, there came to be more animals like it. They hatched from great eggs and ate many other animals and learned and changed and survived. The longer each one lived, the more cunning it became. Then, one day, a very old and very clever animal fell asleep. It was a very deep sleep and a very long sleep. And when the animal awoke, it found that it was truly Awake.

For the first time, it was something other than an animal. It thought and felt and understood things that it had not been able to before. It thought and felt and learned many new things until it came upon another animal that was Awake—and now the two beings thought and felt and learned in new ways and they found that for two beings to communicate all of these new things, they had to create Language.

They called themselves A'dan'on, Those Who Are Awake; and they called the animals like them who were not Awake da'gon, Those Who Sleep. And for a very long time, this was how the world went. Da'gons hatched and grew, ate and changed, and if they lived long enough and grew smart enough, they slept and Awakened. A'dan'on Awakened and thought and felt, and learned and spoke. They learned many things. Some chose to learn Fire, and they were able to speak in ways that changed Fire and they could do strange and wondrous things with it. Some chose to learn Water and they came to do equally strange and wonderful things. And so it went, on and on.

One of the things A'dan'on understood that they had not as da'gon was that the world itself changed all the time. So it was not strange when a new animal started appearing. It was a fairly weak animal, and like many weaker animals it lived and moved in groups. The A'dan'on did not pay much attention to it.

Except, eventually, this new animal proved impossible to ignore. It spread to live in places it should not have been able to. It defeated predators that it did not have the strength or natural defenses to be able to. It did things that were strange and wonderful. And when the A'dan'on, made curious by this animal, finally studied it, they learned the most strange and wonderful thing of all about it. This new animal felt and thought and learned and understood things that animals did not. This weak creature was Awake. In fact, it seemed to be Awake from birth.

A'dan'on had always enjoyed their ability to change; they often changed themselves into different animals and learned from these shapes. So it was not unusual for a few of them to try to learn how to change into one of these new animals. These few learned, and changed, and learned. They learned to speak the Language of the new animal—except, they found that there was more than one and so they might learn one language and still not be able to speak to all of these creatures that called themselves various words meaning "people." Which, obviously, was simply another word that meant A'dan'on—Those Who Are Awake: the ones who think and feel and understand...and speak.

There were, however, differences in how they were Awake. People spoke languages instead of Language. People were not able to learn Fire or learn Air the way A'dan'on could. People lived and died the way animals did where A'dan'on lived and changed and learned until eventually, it seemed they went to Sleep. It was a deep sleep, and a very, very long one, and no one was quite sure what would happen when it was over. Something beyond Awakening, it seemed. But it was definitely a sleep and not death. And there were differences in the way people thought and felt and understood as well.

As a few A'dan'on lived among the people, they learned that even though people were Awake, it was still better to hide what they were. Da'gon were naturally large and fierce, with tough skin like armor and sharp claws and teeth. A'dan'on shared these natural defenses plus the ability developed over many years to change into many other animals as needed to run or hide or fight. Fear was not a common response to A'dan'on. People, on the other hand, were weak and almost defenseless except for their ability to think. They were very afraid. All the time. And their fear led them to make weapons and to fight for survival, sometimes even when they didn't really need to fight. So the A'dan'on found that, in order to learn from the people, it was usually easier to hide from them.

And the people, making weapons and working together, learned to kill da'gon.

So the A'dan'on hid themselves even more.

Now, it had always been true that an A'dan'on who had changed shape might mate with another kind of animal. It was generally accepted that the child would be whatever form its mother was when she gave birth. Da'gon gave birth to da'gon, deer gave birth to deer, and people gave birth to people. An A'dan'on giving birth lived with the knowledge that its children would be animals—unless they inherited the ability to change (which occasionally happened even if they were not da'gon) and managed to live long enough to Awake—which most animals that were not da'gon did not manage.

But it was different for A'dan'on who gave birth to people.  People were Awake from birth. For the first time in all of time, A'dan'on could have children that could think and feel, understand and speak. These children who were people were sometimes able to learn to change as da'gon could—though it was harder for them since it was not a natural ability of their species. And one day, one of these children who were people fell asleep. It was a very deep sleep, and a very long sleep. And when the child awoke, it found that it was truly A'dan'on—able to change as A'dan'on, able to speak Language and learn Air or Earth or Grass as A'dan'on.

It was a joyous day, to learn that these children who were Awake as people could also become A'dan'on, and more and more A'dan'on chose to give birth to children who were people instead of animals.

And the people continued killing da'gons, and they became better and better at it, and they spread across more and more of the world. A'dan'on became more reluctant to give birth to da'gon. The eggs were too vulnerable. Protecting them was hard and took a very long time. Baby da'gon needed a lot of protection too—and they were animals and they could not think and feel and understand and think. It was not a happy task in the way that parenting children who were people was.

As fewer da'gons were born from A'dan'on parents, and more da'gons were killed by people, there came a day when there were none left. Only the shape of da'gons that all A'dan'on learned to take on after the first Sleep and wore in honor of their ancestors.

So it came to be that the world was covered with great animals, with imaginations larger and more powerful than can be expressed. They did rule the earth—for people invented the concept of "rule," and the world was theirs.  Among the more powerful people there were weaker ones as well; there were people who hunted and people who farmed; people that lived in villages and people that wandered the land; people that read and people that wrote.  

And there are dragons among us.

 

 


End file.
